4.1.1 Respect for human rights
Respect for human rights is a fundamental condition of equitable and sustainable global development. The Government is pursuing a result- oriented policy at national and EU level and in regional and international organisations, aimed at strengthening adherence to human rights.
Sweden is working to further integrate a rights perspective into the activities of the UN and international financial institutions. Its efforts in this field contributed in 2006 to the creation by the General Assembly of a Human Rights Council that began its work by addressing serious violations of human rights, among other places in Sudan and Burma. Sweden has also striven for the abolition of capital punishment, and was instrumental in the adoption of a UN resolution in the autumn of 2007
moratorium on its use. In addition, the Government has contributed to, and signed, the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from
Enforced Disappearance. In the EU, Sweden seeks to ensure that human
rights inform the EU’s external relations and activities more effectively. One result has been the adoption of an independent instrument for financing the work of NGOs with democracy and human rights in third countries. In the WHO and elsewhere, Sweden has been active in defence of the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women, girls and young people. Thanks in part to the Government’s support, the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights was granted membership of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in June 2007. On order to give human rights greater scope and impact in the World Bank, the Government has supported a number of initiatives and programmes in the gender equality field and has pressed for the establishment of a human rights fund. Swedish support to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) is helping to strengthen respect for the human rights of employees. The Government also keeps a close watch on human rights compliance by individual states through various means, including special country dialogues and annual public reports on human rights.
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59 The Government believes that coherent and resolute efforts on the part
of Sweden and the rest of the international community has helped people all over the world to enjoy their human rights more fully. The work of the UN and other multilateral forums enables Sweden to consolidate standards in this field and to actively encourage the development of a coherent approach by the international community. The Government has benefited, both unilaterally and via th EU, from taking part in policy development efforts in this field, in advocacy work vis-à-vis individual states, in development cooperation, in trade policy matters, etc. The Government’s enhanced objective, set forth in the communication Human Rights in Swedish Foreign Policy (2007/08:109), to the effect that the issue of human rights is to run through all policy areas, should ensure that the results achieved so far will be sustained in the future.
4.1.2 Democracy and good governance
Sweden’s democracy promotion efforts are aimed at helping to establish conditions in which women and men, girls and boys can influence and improve their situation. This is to be achieved by ensuring they are given a genuine opportunity to learn about and assert and exercise their political and civil rights without fear, and thereby gain control over their lives.
Sweden has decided to provide economic support to the UN
Democracy Fund. It is also seeking to strengthen the influence of the
poorest countries on international financial institutions. As result of a decision taken in 2006, a number of particularly underrepresented countries in the IMF had their quotas raised in order to boost their voting power and influence. Sweden was among the strongest advocates of the World Bank’s Governance & Anti-Corruption Strategy adopted in the
spring of 2007. In the same year, Sweden also acceded to the UN Convention Against Corruption. Sida’s analyses of formal and informal power structures in partner countries has made it easier for Sweden to identify strategic actors with an explicitly poverty-oriented agenda. As part of its contribution to the work of UNESCO, the Government has resolved that Sweden will press for a more pronounced emphasis on issues relating to press freedom and freedom of expression, access to knowledge and information for all, and respect for cultural and language diversity. In 2006, the Government Offices allocated funding to a number of civil society actors and a number of seminars were organised that helped broaden and deepen Swedish civil society’s commitment to the policy for global development.
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60 The Government believes that by giving thematic priority to
democracy and human rights, international cooperation against cross- border crime and support to civil society in Sweden’s development cooperation work, it has paved the way for a more coherent approach to the task of promoting democratic development in our partner countries.
4.1.3 Gender equality
Gender equality and equal terms and opportunities for women and men are a precondition of sustainable development. The issues here are justice, full enjoyment by all of human rights, and effective poverty reduction.
The Government has stepped up efforts to mainstream a gender equality perspective into the policies, activity plans, guidelines and decisions of international organisations. For example, Sweden’s proactive work in intergovernmental negotiations in 2006 and 2007 resulted in the inclusion, the first time, of this perspective in a number of thematic UN resolutions, among them the resolution in the General Assembly’s Third Committee on aid to refugees in Africa. Sweden has emphasised the importance of preventive work in the fight against human trafficking. This issue is now on the political agenda in Ukraine for the first time, and information campaigns have been conducted there. The Swedish law prohibiting the purchase of sexual services has been held up at various international conferences and meetings as an example of preventive action and a way of deterring demand for such services. Sweden has thereby had an impact on the debate in many countries, and a number of them have introduced or are preparing legislation of a similar kind. The recent reorganisation of the National Board of Trade has made it easier to observe and analyse linkages between trade and gender equality.
The Government considers that Sweden’s international contribution to the promotion of gender equality and better conditions and opportunities for women and girls, as part of the effort to achieve equitable and sustainable global development, has been enhanced in a number of policy areas. An internal evaluation study shows that there is now greater potential for achieving the goal of mainstreaming a gender equality perspective into all areas of government policy.